Three women calmly avoid a dangerous steam train in the first international television advertising promoting action against osteoporosis.

The 30 and 45 second spots were filmed on location near Bariloche, Argentina.

Harry Patramanis and production company Cohn & Company donated their time to produce the film, which was shot during a blustery spring weekend in Patagonia.

"We chose Patagonia for several reasons," noted Harry Patramanis, the film's director. "In Patagonia we could rent an old-fashioned black-smoke-spewing steam engine. The scenery is dramatic, the actresses appear international, the crews are professional and it proved to be the cheapest location to produce the spot, an important consideration when you're working with a not-for-profit organization like IOF."

The train which threatens the women was manufactured in 1913 in Glasgow. Once an example of the most modern railway engineering, the train now appears quaint and inefficient  the locomotive takes four hours to warm up in the morning and uses 26,000 liters of water for each 30 kilometers. It is currently in limited use taking tourists on day trips out of Bariloche.

To make the train look more menacing, local artisans designed a special steel front grille for the locomotive, making it look more "Mad Maxish".

BethMiller, of Campbell Mithun Health Practice, who supervised the team which created the spot for IOF, noted: "We developed a creative idea that is stirringly visual. The spot, like osteoporosis, reaches out to women everywhere  regardless of geography or language."

The international advertising campaign was launched January 29, 2003 at a press conference in London.